Just ordered my E-Bike!

[skyl4rk]

How are you connecting the batteries? Spot welding them to metal sheet?

[echomodder]

No I'm soldering them in series. Here is a pic. of some NICD's I got from work that I'm working on to use for trips to/from my parents house.
I've built a wooded bot to put them in.

These boxes will go into my rear baskets.

[echomodder]

Here's a pic of the batt's wired. Not fully charged yet.

[jakemacd]

Aren't those little jumper wires going to get really hot, Ecomodder?

[jamesqf]

Just a suggestion: if you want cheap NiMH batteries, look at auto salvage yards for wrecked hybrids. You can often (depending on area) pick up the entire pack for $250-$400.

[echomodder]

I didn't think about getting used nimh batt's I wonder how much they weigh? I plan on having 3 sets of the NICD packs so I'm hopping that the wires wont get hot & melt I've been so busy over the last week that I haven't posted any pic's of my progress I'm working on the bike today & hope to have it done. So I'll post some pic's later.

[echomodder]

Bike is done Here's some pic's
Batt packs one open one closed, & one charger,

Inside batt box. I decided to use 42 D batt's instead of 40. A little extra power

Batt packs in bike

Completed bike.

The chargers have been a NIGHTMARE I ordered the 2A chargers, got them in. They sent me 1A ones so I called them & they said that they would send me the right ones. Then they send me the same ones! Called them back & was told (after much explaining) that the 2A ones were discontinued. Sooo I was back to searching for a charger. I found this one It is a great charger. Although I had to modify the packs. This charger will charge 1-24 cells & I have 42. So I had to make 2 24V 20A pack instead of 2 48V 10A packs. I ordered 2 of the chargers got them in on mon. but one had a broken LCD screen! So I sent the broken one back & ordered 2 more from someone else on tues. told them to send them out on wed. to get them by fri-sat. They called me & told me they were out of stock & wold be in on fri. WTF So I told them to send them out on fri Express mail so I hope to get them today.

[dcb]

It looks great, except as jakemacd points out, the little wires soldered between the batteries should probably be quite a bit thicker or you will be losing a noticable amount of energy there. They should probably be as thick as the cable leaving the box. I suppose you could just test it at this point: Accelerate it at full throttle while feeling one of the small inter-battery wires, and if you burn your finger then make them wires thicker
I'm a bit jealous of the bike though

[echomodder]

I checked the wires & they don't heat up much at all. I just got back from killing the batts. went 27 mi. and the last 7mi was trying to kill the batts.


PS I got my chargers!!! So mon I'll be biking to work.

[jakemacd]

That's fantastic Echomodder! You've got to be very excited and proud. What else can you tell us? Speed data for example. How much did this whole project cost you? I'm trying to decide between buying complete or building.